Washington (AFP) - Olympic champion Sara Hector of Sweden led by over half a second after the first run of the women's giant slalom at the World Cup race at Killington on Saturday.
Six-time world champion American Mikaela Shiffrin left herself plenty of work to do on home snow in the second leg after she finished tenth fastest, 1.36 seconds behind Hector's time of 52.29.
Technical specialist Shiffrin opened the season with back-to-back slalom wins at Levi, Finland and will be targeting another victory in Sunday's slalom.
Hector won giant slalom gold at the Beijing Olympics and finished second last season in the World Cup standings in the discipline, behind France's Tessa Worley.
Worley was 1.19 off Hector's pace with Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel second quickest .38 behind Hector.
